Political Parties' Platforms Fail to Value Human Life

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The recent statement by Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez essentially excluding pro-life supporters from Democratic politics coupled with Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson’s two-week execution spree dramatically illustrates how radically each of America’s dominant political parties fails to promote the consistent ethic of life of Catholic social teaching.

Neither action has the full support of party faithful, and it is clear from polling across the nation that Hutchinson’s affinity for the death penalty is rapidly losing support, even within some of the most conservative ranks. Unfortunately, Perez’s statement, though quickly countered by other prominent Democrats, seems to represent a growing faction within the party.

This viewpoint is most short-sighted of the Democrats. It is somewhat perplexing that the party of the “big tent” seems to be tearing it down on the issue of abortion.  After all, the Democrats have been the party arguing most loudly for equal pay for women, paid leave for new mothers, and to protect maternity care in the Affordable Care Act. So it is all the more unfathomable that it is also the party that leads the pack in declaring a woman’s ability to hold a child in her womb, giving the baby the protection, nourishment, and care it needs for nine months and then bringing it into the world as a full-fledged human being, is nothing more than one more bodily function of many that can be cut off at will.

A more natural fit for the party of hope and change would be to declare that women, and their children, deserve better treatment than abortion. In fact, both parties, and all voters regardless of political affiliation, should be able to agree that no woman should ever have to face a question of her life versus her child’s. Shockingly, maternal deaths in childbirth are on the rise in the United States, often due to complications from treatable causes, such as obesity. Both parties should be advocating for better access to health care for women before pregnancy to ensure healthy mothers and children, not for abortion as a “solution” to a problem that could be addressed long before the mother’s due date.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the political spectrum, Republicans need to recognize that the most intrusive of big government actions is taking someone’s life through the death penalty.  The party of fiscal responsibility and small government should not include recourse to execution for perpetrators who can more cost-effectively be kept in prison for life.  

For Catholics, both abortion and the death penalty are moral issues most easily boiled down to the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” and reinforced repeatedly by the teachings of Jesus, including his commandment to love and care for each other regardless of whether that love and care is reciprocated.  While the death penalty has been permissible under Church teaching in the past, our Catechism is clear now that its use in a First World nation that can readily protect the public without killing its citizens is unjustified and immoral.  

Life issues are not the only matters where both party platforms fail to represent Catholic values, but as Tom Perez and Asa Hutchinson demonstrate, these issues demonstrate the importance of Catholic advocacy and evangelization if we are to live our baptismal calling to build a more just and peaceful world.

Catholics who tend to vote Democratic need to continue to challenge the party on its ultimately anti-woman, anti-life view that childbirth is nothing special and easily terminated. Republican-leaning Catholics should continue to push for a consistent policy of protecting life from conception to natural death.

In between these issues rest a myriad of other political and moral issues with which to challenge political party platforms, but beginning with a basic concept that all human life has value is the perfect starting point for just about every issue.

Jean Hill is director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City Peace & Justice Commission.